by Thorne, Elle
Maia stretched her leopard body, digging her front claws into the dirt and arching her back. She relished the sunshine on her fur and wanted nothing more than to bask in it, let it sink into her and warm her body.
Her leopard was happy being in its form, and Maia felt a sense of security she could let her leopard manage the situation. That she didn’t have to be on guard or in control.
It’s been way too long since I could do this.
Her leopard started to move, padding west instead of north, in the direction Maia had been heading.
She let her mind rest, relaxing and going to a place where she didn’t have to think, a hibernation of sorts, while her leopard made her way west.
It was dusk when her leopard stopped to take a drink from a brook. Maia studied the serene grove.
I can’t be in this form indefinitely. I have to make plans.
Her leopard chuffed, a low sound that bounced around the treed area.
That’s when Maia heard another sound.
A low growl.
Something else was out here.
Something that wasn’t alarming her leopard.
A figure stepped out from the shadows.
A black panther—huge, muscular, with eyes so dark they were almost black in the upcoming twilight.
Her leopard raised her head, scenting the air.
Who is this? she asked her leopard. You don’t know if you can trust…
Then it hit her.
Him.
The man in black.
She wanted to warn her leopard to run, to fight…to do anything, but at the same moment, she felt the push for a sync. A sync would form a link between herself and the man in black while they were in their shifter forms. A sync would enable them to speak silently.
She wanted to deny it, to push him away, but her leopard reacted first, allowing the sync to open up a link of communication between them.
Anger and fear took over, making her feel a coldness inside that even being in a shifted form couldn’t prevent.
Get away from me, she screamed at him, and, at the same time, she wondered why her leopard wasn’t driving forward to kill, to help her.
I mean you no harm, Maia. His voice had the same deep rumble in his shifted form as it did in his human.
How did you find me? She thought of the destroyed cell phone. He shouldn’t have been able to know where she was, especially since she got off the train and headed west.
A suspicion grew in Maia, so remote, so unlikely, she pushed it back.
He moved closer. Powerful neck on a wide chest, muscles in haunches rippling in the shadow-laden dusk.
Trust me. His voice held a mesmerizing quality.
She couldn’t shake off the effect of him.
Why should I trust you? She urged her leopard to back up, to leap to a tree, to run away. Her leopard didn’t move.
With every step, his muscles were undulating, proclaiming his power.
I’d never hurt you. I could have killed you at the club if I’d wanted, while you slept in my arms.
But he hadn’t. Why had he kept her alive?
Manuel’s days of tormenting you are over, Maia. If you’ll only let me help you.
Why should I believe you? She cursed at her leopard for not moving away.
Two more steps and he was next to her. Larger than her, so much larger, with glossy black fur, dark eyes, and a stature that said he was fully in charge.
Ask your leopard. She knows. She trusts.
Then she realized. Her leopard had arranged to take this route because…
She wrestled over control with her leopard, knowing full well if she did get control and she shifted, she’d be powerless against the huge panther.
You betrayed me? she asked her leopard.
She didn’t betray you, he answered.
Get out of my mind! Maia tried to close off the communication sync, but her leopard wouldn’t allow it. Frustration grew, and she mentally clenched her fists.
Maia.
He snarled and pounced on her, pushing her to the ground, standing over her, white teeth gleaming brighter than the moon beginning its ascent.
Her screams reverberated in her head as her leopard snarled softly in the background.
He moved to the side and lay next to her, his head nudging her shoulder. He buried his muzzle in her neck.
She felt his breath hot on her leopard shoulder while he breathed deeply.
Let me tell you a story? I’ll shift first. Then if you want me dead, that will be your chance, while I’m in my human form. If you want to hear the story, I’ll tell it after you shift into yourself. I don’t want your leopard keeping you captive any more than I’d want Manuel to keep you captive.
She’d had enough of not being in control. You tell me the story while I’m in my leopard.
He nodded.
Hopefully, she could get her leopard to kill him if she needed to. The problem was, could Maia get herself to will it? Could she kill this man?
Chapter Six
Two seconds later, Franco had shifted. Shifting came easy for him. He practiced it regularly, both for his panther to enjoy being in his skin and to be able to shift quickly if needed.
He stared at her. Beautiful creature, the black rosettes on tawny fur the perfect camouflage under the canopy of trees hiding them from the outside world. If he could stay in this place forever, with just her, he’d do it, but he knew Manuel was already in Italy. Manuel had found her and wanted to teach Maia a lesson.
Franco watched her patiently, waiting for her to shift. Hoping she would trust him. When she still hadn’t, though several minutes had passed, he became resigned to the fact she wasn’t ready to trust, not yet.
He gazed in her dark eyes, saw a glimmer of the woman who was hiding inside. Putting one hand out, he touched her shoulder, ran his hand down luxurious fur. Reaching for her head, he cupped both sides of her leopard face and looked into it, much like he had the night before, when they’d been in such different circumstances.
“Franco,” he said. “That’s my name. Franco Duran.” He released his hold on her face and sat back against a tree. He wondered what she was thinking, but unless one of them shifted so they could communicate, he wouldn’t know.
“I grew up on the streets of Brazil, the fourth child of a prostitute. I learned how to take care of myself early. My father was a shifter, clearly, but my mother wasn’t. She saw me start to shift one day, thought I was cursed. She became convinced I was possessed and sent me away. I was raised by a distant cousin in the jungles.”
Her leopard grunted.
Did she notice the similarities in their upbringings—though the circumstances were very different?
“You don’t need to hear this boring story. Let me get to the relevant parts. I work for Dorian Angelido.”
Her leopard cocked her head. He put his hand out, and she sniffed it, her breath hot against his skin. He moved his hand, putting it on her shoulder, letting his fingers become buried in the luxuriousness.
“You recognize Dorian Angelido’s name, don’t you? I used to do reconnaissance on Manuel. Now, I’ve been tasked to kill him.” He exhaled a breath that spoke of the dilemma he’d found himself in. “But during my reconnaissance, I discovered something. Someone. You.”
With a loud cracking sound, she shifted slowly and painfully, lying next to him in the carpet of grass.
“Franco.”
The sound of his name flowing off those lips took him to another place. He closed his eyes, remembering the vision she’d been the night before.
He pushed away the image of her almost naked on his lap. How long had he imagined that very same image? But not in that place, not like that. Not with the woman he’d come to respect, admire, love.
His eyes took in her face, devoid of makeup, beautiful, highly defined cheekbones, black eyes that were lost in the night’s darkness. Her face was a study in vulnerability and toughness.
Full hips in faded jeans,
full breasts behind a tank top, under a denim jacket. Scars completely hidden, except for the one bisecting her cheek.
“What is your personal agenda?” she asked.
He paused. He wasn’t one to put anything on the table. Discussing himself always came difficult to him. His hand still on her shoulder, he rubbed tiny circles in the pattern of her jacket.
How do you begin to tell a woman you’ve watched her through surveillance video for years? How do you tell her you know her better than anyone else might? That you know the colors she likes, her favorite foods, whether she gets up early or not. That you know how much she loves her nephew, as if he were her own child. That she’s done things that would have made a lesser woman crumble, but, not only has she survived, she’s become stronger. You can’t tell her that. Not without making her leery.
So, he’d keep the answer simple.
“You.”
Her eyes flashed wide for a second and briefly dilated, but she took his statement in stride, not commenting on it. “How did you know I was at the station or on the train?”
Franco took a deep breath. “Your leopard.”
“I knew it,” she hissed. A look of betrayal crossed her face.
* * *
As deadly as toxic gas, shock crept over Maia. The pain of her leopard’s duplicity lay on her heart. Her leopard had sold her out to his panther. Maia put a barrier up between her and her leopard, pushing her leopard away, not wanting to feel her. She’d deal with her later.
Franco watched her from beneath hooded eyes.
“And you’re here to kill Manuel?”
He nodded but said nothing.
Confusion raged within her. “If you’re here to kill Manuel, then why—” She hunted for the right words but didn’t want to say them out loud. “Then why last night?”
He didn’t answer. Anger flushed throughout her system. “Why are you here? He’s in Brazil! Go kill him.”
“Because he’s in Italy. In Rome. One of his men saw you. Then he lost you. I picked up where he left off.”
A chill ran over Maia. “How is it you found me and Manuel hasn’t, if his man saw me?”
“Manuel is in Rome, but he didn’t know where you were working. I never gave his man a chance to tell him about LaDonna’s.”
She paused, letting that sink in. She knew what that meant. This man had killed. For her. But why?
Her leopard made a noise, an explanation.
Rage with her leopard built in Maia. Her leopard had worked covertly behind her back. She’d as much as betrayed her.
Go away, she told her leopard, furious.
If Manuel was here, then her sister and nephew were in Brazil, possibly with fewer guards than normal. Maybe there was a chance she could get them back. But she’d have to get to her money and her passport.
“Katya and Moíses, I have to go to them. I can—”
“They aren’t in Brazil. They’re traveling with him.”
Fear, excitement, even joy rushed through Maia like whitewater crashing its way through canyons, ricocheting in her mind.
She quelled the hope threatening to bloom. She’d have no more luck getting Katya and Moíses away from Manuel in Italy than in Brazil.
But she had to try.
Had to.
Somehow.
He cocked his head to the left suddenly. His eyes had taken on a whole different level of alertness. His rugged jaw line was clenched tightly.
“What is it,” she whispered.
“Someone’s coming.”
She listened closely. “Voices.”
“Let’s shift and get out of here.” He rose, holding a hand out to her.
With ease and quiet, he shifted, his panther dark and sleek, muscular and huge next to her. His obsidian eyes glittered in the dimness, catching the moonlight and reflecting it.
She envied him that shift. Envied the speed, the silence, and the effortlessness with which he transferred from one form to another. She should have practiced more often. She shouldn’t have denied herself the luxury of shifting after escaping from the fighting ring. She’d shifted so often during that time, letting her leopard be the reason she managed to make it through her time at the underground ring.
Maia beckoned for her leopard to come forward, to step into her skin.
She was greeted with silence—a silence so heavy, so empty, unlike any she’d ever experienced before. It was as if there was a void inside her.
“I can’t shift. Something’s wrong.” She fought to keep the fear and uncertainty from her voice.
Her own words echoed in her mind. Go away.
Had her leopard left? Did she vanish and abandon her forever? Was that even possible?
Pain ripped through her chest, a pain so acute it stole her breath as swiftly as a kick to the diaphragm would have.
This can’t be happening.
But it was. Her leopard had abandoned her.
Franco butted her with his panther head, pushing her gently toward a tree then he bounded away into the night.
Moments later, she heard a scream, then another one.
A bit later he returned, striding confidently into the grove in his human skin, his black clothes blending into the shadows.
“A pair of lovers. They’re gone.”
“What if they come back, with reinforcements? Panthers aren’t exactly normal to find in this area. They’ll assume you’re an escaped circus animal.”
“They never saw me. For all they know, I’m a wolf or a big dog. Just a couple of snarls and the lovers were running off, scrambling with their clothing.”
She couldn’t help the laugh that slipped out at the visual he’d given her.
“About your issue… Why couldn’t you shift?”
“I think she’s abandoned me.”
He tilted his head to the side. She knew what he was doing. He was talking to his panther. She’d done the same thing countless times.
Maia worried her lip while she waited.
She didn’t like the look on his face when he turned to her and said, “My panther can’t reach her.”
Dread covered her like a suffocating blanket made of thick plastic. She couldn’t breathe. She opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t. All she could do was suck air in. An air thick with accusation. She knew it was his panther. Somehow, his panther was projecting his feelings into her mind.
Maia clasped her head with both hands and squeezed. “Tell him to stop.” The words were pulled from her lungs, punctuated with gasps. “Tell your panther to leave me alone.”
“I tried.”
“Can you hear him?”
“Of course.” Franco wrapped his arms around her, his body tall, strong, but not comforting.
There was no comfort from the guilt that assailed her. No comfort and no absolution.
“What have I done?” Dry, soundless sobs racked her body
“Why did you send her away?” Neither Franco’s tone nor his words conveyed an accusation.
“She betrayed me.”
“Because she and my panther worked together?” He leaned against the tree, pulling her closer, then slowly lowered them both until he was sitting on the ground and she was in his lap, but in a position that was very different from the night before.
She was sitting on his thighs, sidesaddle, her body leaning against his while his arms were wrapped around her, as if keeping the world’s evils at bay.
“Wouldn’t you think it was betrayal?”
“I can’t answer that in a way you’ll like.”
“Then answer it honestly. Just give me an answer.” She choked the words out.
* * *
Franco held her as if her life depended on his embrace. He wouldn’t have let her go if she’d begged him to, if she’d struggled. He hadn’t come this far and gone through this much to simply do that. It was about more than panthers and leopards. It was about the two of them. He could tell her the answer to the question, but that didn’t come close to covering what
was inside him.
“Betrayal? She protected and shielded you during all the cage fights. She has always done what she believed is right for you. My panther and your leopard know they are meant for each other. It wasn’t up to us to separate them.”
“Have you ever wondered if the one your panther would want wouldn’t be the one you’d want?” Her voice was tiny in the big black night. A shiver coursed over her, sending a shudder through his that had everything to do with what was in his heart and his panther’s heart.
His panther roared in his head, demanding his mate be returned.
I can’t make her leopard come back. She has to want to return. That’s between the two of them.
Franco knew that answer wouldn’t be good enough for his panther, and so when the panther snarled in protest, Franco wasn’t surprised.
Maia was watching him, expecting him to answer. He’d never wondered if the one his panther wanted wouldn’t be the same one he’d want. They’d found their mate. She was their fated one, both Maia and her leopard.
Except, now her leopard was gone. He exhaled, letting his panther’s frustration out in a deep breath.
“Never,” he said. I’ve never had any doubt the one my panther claimed would be the same as the one I want.
He couldn’t tell her that. He wanted to know for sure she felt it.
His panther howled.
Quit that. When she’s ready, she’ll return.
The panther growled.
I can’t do anything about it if she never returns. And no matter how much you want it, it has to come from her, so simmer, and get out of her head. Let them sort it out.
With a final rumble, his panther subsided.
Maia had remained silent in his arms. The hunter’s block she’d had when he’d met her had worn off. Her scent filled his lungs, as precious and as life-giving as the very oxygen he breathed. He sucked in a deep chest full of air and let the essence of her sit on his senses.
“Can’t you forgive your leopard? She’s done so much. Those scars that pepper your body, she took those hits for you. She protected you and killed for you.”